Best Coast – Fade Away

Following Best Coast’s explosion onto the indie-rock landscape back in 2010 with debut album Crazy for You, lovers of fuzz-tinged guitar pop were all a flutter at the possibility of having yet another band to champion amongst the sudden wave of 50s and 60s influenced surf rock. While they were still reeling from the arrival of bands like Vivian Girls a couple of years before and the slightly more brutal Wavves to contend with, Best Coast suddenly did a 180, enlisting the skills of acclaimed producer Jon Brion to helm their second record The Only Place.

The record upset a few people. The sound changed markedly; though they took the respectable path and decided not to continue their reliance on reverb, the album felt a little hollow – ballads abounded, and though the overdrive was warmer, it was a little less endearing.

Best Coast’s somewhat fuck you attitude to their inceptive record so soon was a surprise, but what’s even more surprising is that so quickly have they turned it around. They’ve far from fallen back into old habits in this new mini-album, the seven-tracker Fade Away, and essentially achieved what they set out to produce on The Only Place. The grit has returned, but new shimmer introduced on that album has not, and the result is a much more rounded and energetic sound. They sound like a stronger, better-rehearsed and more confident band.

The record itself contains far from groundbreaking material. With lyrics like “sometimes I hate myself for loving you” on “Who Have I Become?” breaking no barriers, they don’t need to as it sits comfortably alongside the straight-forward, often riff-less guitar lines demonstrating that Best Coast works best when they place their ideas firmly level with their station.

But that’s a simplistic description in itself. Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, backed by fellow guitarist Bob Bruno, doesn’t overshadow her own concepts with flowery words. Instead, her lyrics shows an endearing interest in getting to the bottom of things. One of the hallmarks of Best Coast lyrics, particularly on this mini-LP ,is that she is constantly asking questions, as if continually questioning the judgement of both herself and the world around her. “Fear of My Identity” supports this notion through the self-exploration of the dynamics and possible break up of a relationship, which produces one of the most powerful and heart-wrenching offerings on Fade Away.

Elsewhere, the closest we get to what we heard on The Only Place is in the slow-burning “Baby I’m Crying”, but without the shiny production, the track feels much stronger. Overall, Best Coast don’t have a huge sound, and the compression and techniques involved in a high-powered production setup condensed the emotion that the band is so qualified to be emitting. A further case in point of the development seen in this latest record is in closer “I Don’t Know How”, which essentially just involves repeating the chorus over and over to a slow waltz-like beat before returning to the upbeat double-snare punctuated indie-rock fun that led the first two thirds of the record, as if to say, “guys, we know, you don’t have to worry about it anymore”. Welcome back, Best Coast.